Science Highlights

When trash is burned for energy, a residue called bottom ash (BA) is left behind. Each year the European Union alone creates millions of tons of BA, which can be used for construction after treatment. It is concerning that BA may contain metals like copper and zinc that leach into the environment, potentially harming wild life and, people.

Nitrogen is an essential component for life and often a limiting factor for growth, despite the fact that air is composed of mostly nitrogen. The processing required to turn dinitrogen (N₂) gas into a form usable by most living organisms is rare in nature. Breaking the triple bond of N₂ requires the enzyme nitrogenase, which is found in some bacteria.

Switchable photovoltaic windows hold much promise as a new technology to mitigate greenhouse gases that cause climate change. These windows not only automatically and reversibly darken to decrease the need for air conditioning, they generate electricity. One promising active layer is based on metal halide perovskites (MHP), a crystalline material that can harness sunlight.

Lithium ion battery technology has made possible our most-used personal electronics.  Improvements in lithium ion battery energy storage, which can lead to advancements in technologies like electric vehicles, depend largely on improvements to the cathode materials.

The enzyme 3-Hydroxyanthranilate-3,4-dioxygenase (HAO) is critical for the metabolism of the amino acid tryptophan and the synthesis of the important coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). Although the role of this enzyme has been long known, its mechanism and regulation have remained a mystery, because it is difficult to study.

In the 1950’s and 60’s a poisoning occurred in Minamata Japan.  In addition to the people, the local cat population was affected with what was called “Dancing Cat Disease” and shortly thereafter neurological signs and symptoms became more prominent in people.  The sickness became known as Minamata Disease.  Eventually it was shown to be a form of organic mercury poisoning. 

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is causing health and economic havoc on a global scale requiring the development of an effective vaccine and therapeutics. Spike proteins found on the viral surface of SARS-CoV-2 attach to human cells to gain entry.

Amyloid, composed largely of mis-folded proteins that form insoluble fibrillar aggregates, is important to many human diseases including Alzheimer’s.  Tooth decay also features amyloid-forming proteins, but in this case it is not mis-folded human amyloid proteins but bacterial proteins that are not mis-folded when they aggregate into functional amyloid polymers.

Because they are highly efficient, low maintenance, and light, lithium-ion batteries have grown in popularity. Their use has improved the functionality of many electronics, such as allowing our cell phones to be more portable and our electric cars to travel longer distances.

Some proteins can form complex cage structures that can trap, hold, catalyze, and release small molecular and atomic cargo based on environmental signals. These protein cages are made of a collection of identical monomer proteins self-assembled into a symmetric conformation.